‘It’ Balloons To $700M+ At Worldwide Box Office

EXCLUSIVE: New Line/Warner Bros’ horror smash It has crossed $700M globally. The Stephen King adaptation that just wouldn’t quit after starting a September rollout domestically and overseas, has ballooned to $700.2M worldwide — and that is extra notable given the film was not released in China.

Japan, where It has grossed $19.2M through Thursday, helped get Pennywise across the $700M mark. The split through Thursday is $327.5M domestic and $372.7M at the international box office. While it’s true that horror over-indexed both in North America and abroad in 2017, this is a major milestone — particularly given that China does not figure in the equation.

It was also an unprecedented success at the September box office domestically — and a sequel is set for September 2019. Among some of the records the Andy Muschietti-directed pic scored: largest opening for a horror film Stateside, biggest opening for an R-rated film, largest opening for a pic based on a book, best preview night for a horror film, best IMAX opening for September and horror pic, and best opening for a New Line release.

Internationally, It was also the s*it. The opening weekend logged $66.3M internationally, dishing up a scary serving to overseas audiences hungry for new fare. The horror genre generally does well in Latin American markets and Itt opened in Brazil to $5.7M where the release date was strategized to benefit from their Independence Day holiday. On 846 screens that gross put it atop the record books in the country as the biggest opening weekend ever for a horror film. Spain took in $3M from 452 screens, which was good for roughly a 50% share of the Top 5 films. That opening also was the biggest launch weekend for the studio in 2017.

Holland grabbed $1.5M on 131 screens — it opened on a Thursday — and held onto a 56% share of the Top 5 films and also became the biggest opening day ever for a horror film. Poland also debuted to $1.15M on 272 screens to become the biggest opening weekend ever for the genre there and the best of 2017 so far for Warner Bros.